C'lay Travis Outkicks His Mental Coverage Once Again

Unsurprisingly, this is one of the first pictures that pops up for "Clay Travis".

The Deadspin story about Notre Dame linebacker Manti Te'o's oft-referenced girlfriend being illusory has spurred plenty of interesting reactions on what this means for the media, story verification procedures, his draft stock and much more. Unfortunately, it's also stirred up some of the worst detritus of the Internet. A case in point comes from C'lay Travis, who's covered college football for Deadspin, AOL FanHouse (RIP), and his current Outkick The Coverage site, plus hosts a Nashville radio show. What's Travis' take on this complicated, layered story that's still coming together? The only plausible rationale here is that Te'o is gay:

This is actually the only story that makes any sense at all. And even if it's true, Te'o will probably deny it because, unfortunately, football players aren't exactly the most welcoming of homosexuality. Otherwise, how are you the star player on a football crazy campus and having an online-only relationship with a woman you've never met? Even Tim Tebow thinks is ridiculous. If you're gay and girls are throwing themselves at you left and right but you continue to rebuff their advances, isn't one of the easiest stories to tell your teammates about why you don't hook up with any of these girls that you have a girlfriend? Even if, you know, that girlfriend isn't actually real. Couldn't being gay even make you more than willing to overlook the fact that your girlfriend didn't want to meet with you? It might be that on some subconscious level Te'o welcomed the hoax because it kept him from having to explain why he didn't have a girlfriend. Furthermore, given that Te'o is Mormon and attending a very religious school, wouldn't being gay be unacceptable to pretty much everyone around him? Having an online girlfiend is an awfully convenient cover. Again, this is just speculation and Te'o would probably deny it anyway, but it actually makes a ton more sense than any other wild theories being tossed out there, that Te'o used the online relationship as a cover for his hidden homosexuality.

To be clear, C'lay is far from the only person who's suggested this, and if this is in fact the case, there will be plenty of support for Te'o from this corner. C'lay has the dubious honour of broaching the topic in the least-tasteful, most-repugnant way possible, though. This is not "the only story that makes any sense at all". C'lay is not inside Te'o's head; he doesn't know the linebacker's motivations, he doesn't know how this apparent relationship unfolded and he certainly doesn't know Te'o's sexual preferences. So why has he come up with this speculation? Well, as seen from other parts of his piece, C'lay believes that all straight men are attracted to the same things and all men handle relationships the same way. Another choice quote:

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Intertubes Roundup: CIS media coverage expansion and more

Seeing as I'm spending so much time writing for other sites and publications these days, which means this blog doesn't get updated as often as I liked, I figured I'd bring in a new feature and rework an old one. I'll try to do a Bucholtz Roundup post every week with links to some of the pieces I've written (for any readers who want to see what else I'm doing and why I don't have much time to write here). To keep it from getting too self-promotional, I also plan to include a Best of the Intertubes section, where I highlight some of the most interesting pieces I've seen over the last week (it's pretty much the old Links of the Day, but that never turned out to be daily and I like this title better). Collectively, I'll call the combined post the Intertubes Roundup. Here's the first one.

Bucholtz Roundup:

Out of Left Field/The CIS Blog:

- "More coverage of CIS Sports on the way?": This is a piece based off of the feature I wrote for Friday's Journal about the potentially expanding media coverage of the CIS. It includes quotes from CBC Sports executive director Scott Moore, Score Media chairman and CEO John Levy and Streaming Sports Network Canada president Bengt Neathery. The Journal piece is written as a traditional news story, while the blog piece features more analysis, so feel free to look at whichever one suits your fancy.

Queen's Journal, Friday, September 12:

- "Football prepares to face Golden Hawks": This is a preview of today's football game between Queen's and Laurier, featuring quotes from quarterback Dan Brannagan, running back Mike Giffin and head coach Pat Sheahan. It also includes the details of the last times Queen's played Laurier. The last Gaels' victory came on October 11, 2003 during the Tommy Denison era. Dan Pawliw was nice enough to link to this one in his excellent Queen's Football Newsletter.

- "An ugly mark on a beautiful game": This is a column I wrote about Canadian investigative journalist Declan Hill's allegations of match-fixing during the 2006 World Cup. I highly recommend Stephen Brunt's piece on the same subject in The Globe and Mail (which includes an interview with Hill) for those looking for more information on the topic. This interview with Hill in Der Spiegel (a German news magazine, but the article's in English) is also very interesting.

- "Gaels fall to Trent in regular-season opener": This is a game recap of the women's rugby team's loss to the Trent Excalibur Wednesday. It features interviews with co-captain Shauna Geerts and head coach Beth Barz. The team plays again at home tomorrow against the York Lions.

- "Rock and Roll Report Card": Yes, it's not sports, but this review of Alice Cooper's new CD Along Came A Spider is the first album review I've ever had published, so I thought I'd include it.

Queen's Journal, Tuesday, September 9:

- "Football defeats Guelph": My game story on the football team's 41-30 win over the Guelph Gryphons. Includes quotes from centre Dan Bederman, quarterback Dan Brannagan, running back Mike Giffin and head coach Pat Sheahan.

- "Baptism by fire": My game story on new Queen's men's soccer head coach Carlo Cannovan's first win over the Trent Excalibur Saturday, and the team's loss to the Carleton Ravens the next day. (My earlier thoughts on Cannovan's appointment can be found here [Out of Left Field]). The story includes quotes from Cannovan, defender Andrew Nador and midfielder Grame Webber, a new transfer from Cornell.

- "A win and a loss for women's soccer": A game story on the women's soccer team's victory over Trent Saturday and loss to Carleton the next day. Includes quotes from head coach Dave McDowell, midfielder Jenn Pentesco and striker/defender Sara Buckham.


Best of the Intertubes:

-"The Brief Wonderous Life of Angel Berroa" [Joe Posnanski, September 7]: Posnanski delivers his usual excellence with this post about Dodgers' shortstop Angel Berroa. He covers stats, fandom, bizarre stories, and the unusual places you have to turn to for hope when your franchise falls on tough times. Highly recommended.

-"The Hunted" [Ivan Solotaroff,Details (I don't usually read Details, so hat-tip to Deadspin's Clay Travis for picking this up), October issue (yes, it's from the future)]: A fantastic profile of Ohio State quarterback Terrelle Pryor, who's been described as "the next Vince Young and the next LeBron James—in one".

-"Twelve-Year-Old Girl Kicked Off Boys' Basketball Team For Being Too Good" [Clay Travis, Deadspin, Sept. 12]: Clay makes another solid pickup, this one from The New York Times Magazine. Both his thoughts and the original article are well worth a read.

"Zen Dayley: Manny is taking it easy for all of us sinners" [Neate Sager, Out of Left Field, Sept. 12]: Neate has a great deconstruction of Daily Breeze writer John Klima's article that alleges in the lede, "Manny Ramirez is the worst ballplayer I have ever seen." What I like about Neate's piece is how he gets why Klima would write that and why Ramirez is frustrating to watch, but still exposes the illogical nature of Klima's arguments.

"Still dreaming of the Ontario Derby" [Duane Rollins, Out of Left Field, Sept. 13]: Duane comes through with some good insight about why an Ottawa MLS franchise may not be a ridiculous idea.

"Angst Over Sonics' Departure Drives Local Man To Reach For New Heights...With His Feet!" [Damon Agnos, Buzzer Beater, Seattle Weekly, Sept 11 (via the fabulous J.E. Skeets at Ball Don't Lie)]: This is a hilarious but sad post about a Seattle resident who's started kicking his ceiling to cope with the loss of the Sonics.